Iliante realizes that his weapons are useless, so he tries to help Penance while trying to avoid the beasty.
Shinjuko dashes across the jungle floor to render aid to Penance, as the Half-orc seems to be bearing the brunt of the assault.
The two gricks flanking Penance ignore Iliante and Corridan, continuing to attack the downed paladin. The jungle worms savage Penance, cracking and bending his armor open in multiple places so their slithering sharp tentacles and beaks can rend his delicate green flesh. It is a singularly unpleasant experience. Their attack leaves the paladin whirling and panting for breath as his blood flows freely into the jungle dirt.
The grick near Arasmes withdraws from the flying genie, leaving its flank open to Devram. The move surprises the duelist who only manages a feeble and ineffective slash. Arasmes also lashes out, the worm having underestimated his reach. It's a move the worm regrets as the massive enraged genie bisects the lower half of its body and tail lengthwise. It slithers away with its split tail leaking purple blood like some kind of demonic snake tongue.
Abandoning his more defensive stance, seeing as how the strange creature appears entirely focused on Penance, Corridan continues to rain blow after blow on it. Still, between the beast's tough hide and unusual body, his strikes prove ineffectual. "What does it take to hurt them?" The question comes out revealing a little more frustration than he would have liked.
"Apparently, all it takes is a huge genie." Devram glances back at Shinjuko. "Or a magic wielding Tien." He holds back from attacking spinning his dueling sword around in his arms, trying to disorient the worm in a display of prowess. The gricks' somewhat primitive brains are confounded by the display.
"Aaaarrgh!" Penance snarls, his face contorting with anger and pain at the multiple lashes and bites. Right. He's had enough of this crap.
His eyes flare yellow and some of his injuries seal shut. No longer caring if he has enough space to get to his feet, Penance lunges upright.
Penance.... gets savaged as he stands up, there's no other word for it. Clearly this was not the wisest decision of his young life. Both gricks tear into him, one of them ripping through an already-weakened point in his armor and hitting an artery.
He's having some flashbacks to nearly dying back on the beach. Wheeeeze. As before, the only thing keeping him upright is his orc blood.
Penance releases his sword enough to gesture and cry out. Healing light staunches the worst of some of his prolific bleeding. Penance stands there, breathing raggedly, still covered in his own blood. He regrips his sword and glares at the grick in front of him. "I have told... people on this gods-damned island... before... that I'm-- not-- supposed-- to die yet," he snarls. "Try harder, you sons of b&!##es!"
Telemakos cheers as the worm that bit him is hacked down in the middle by Arasmes “Oh. Oh wow. Good job ‘Ras!” he says, timidly, over the sound of battle.
“There… there’s more of them. Please help Master Penance, he seems to be – alas, again – in dire need of assistance!”
The small whirlwind that is Arasmes’ lower half flies him fast over to the other side of the battlefield, above the heads of Telemakos and Shinjuko. As he finds himself above the grick, he swings again in a descending arc.
“I think I’m getting good at this!” he says proudly as his blade cuts deep into the grick’s flesh.
“Keep going, ‘Ras, I will keep an eye in case the other one wants to return!”, he says pointing his rifle into the jungle.
Iliante realizes that his weapons are useless, so he tries to help Penance while trying to avoid the beasty.
Shinjuko dashes across the jungle floor to render aid to Penance, as the Half-orc seems to be bearing the brunt of the assault.
=========================
The split-tailed worm attacks Devram, while the other two continue to tear into Penance.
__________________________________
Devram:
Miss
Hit
Miss
Hit
Hit
Penance:
Miss
Miss
Miss
Miss
Miss
Miss
Miss
Hit
Hit
Hit
Penance's eyes roll back in his head and he slumps to the ground in another clang of bloodied armor. Yeah. He's having memories of the last fight he got into.
He hopes he doesn't run into Abadar a second time....
Shinjuko flies into a whirlwind of slashes against her opponents, each strike trailing blue and sloughing off sheathes of gathering frost. The grick between Penance and Iliante draws the bulk of the young yuki's ire, earning a large gash across its underbelly that casts nearly frozen jellies of blood flying into the thick undergrowth beneath. It almost immediately thaws and returns to liquid form, though her second attack is already well underway against the second predator. Its hide proves far tougher and more resilient than the first, and Shinjuko finds herself inflicting minimal injury upon her second victim.
'Sloppy. Careless. Here! Strike here!' the soul-amalgam within Noriki no meiyo chides, a thin band of bright light shimmering into view behind the tentacled "face" of the creature standing between her and Corridan.
______________________________
>
>>
>>
>>
>
>>
>>
Chasing away his frustration at the creatures' resilience, Corridan takes but a moment to concentrate and center himself before unleashing another pair of strikes, the first one against the point where the beast's body seems to meet its head, hoping that it is vulnerable enough to perhaps incapacitate it for a few moments.
With Penance dropping, Iliante supports his sensei Shinjuko while trying to avoid the beasty.
Iliante continues to help Penance while trying to avoid the beasty.
[dice=aid Penance to attack while fighting defensively]1d20+10-4
“’Ras! Do help Master Penance please, we cannot keep healing him!” exclaims Telemakos when he sees the half-orc fall down once again.
Arasmes turns to smile at the gnome “Master, I’m getting really good at flying!”
“Yes, yes, I noticed!” replies Telemakos exasperated “Now don’t look at me, fight!”
“Will do Master!” flying above the unconscious Penance, obscuring both him and the grick, Arasmes rains down two powerful hits on the enemy.
Telemakos watches his bloodied clothes and the torn skin on his arm Oh, I’m going to regret this, I just know it! “Master Penance hang on! I’m coming!” screams Telemakos clumsily riding his mount “Now you stay here, stupid lizard!” screams at the reptile as he dismounts. He gets side by side with Iliante, bayonet facing the grick One more target for you, monster! Just don’t bite Penance anymore!
_____________________
Just hold, out a little longer. Devram thinks as he sees the others come to Penance's aid. The blood from both worms fly and he hoped the half-orc can be saved. Devram bobs around the worm in front of him, but he reserves his sword for parrying, rather than striking out.
Penance's breathing is ragged under his battered armor, but it holds steady.
The split-tailed worm attacks Devram, while the other two continue to tear into Penance.
Penance's eyes roll back in his head and he slumps to the ground in another clang of bloodied armor. Yeah. He's having memories of the last fight he got into.
He hopes he doesn't run into Abadar a second time....
Shinjuko flies into a whirlwind of slashes against her opponents, each strike trailing blue and sloughing off sheathes of gathering frost. The grick between Penance and Iliante draws the bulk of the young yuki's ire, earning a large gash across its underbelly that casts nearly frozen jellies of blood flying into the thick undergrowth beneath. It almost immediately thaws and returns to liquid form, though her second attack is already well underway against the second predator. Its hide proves far tougher and more resilient than the first, and Shinjuko finds herself inflicting minimal injury upon her second victim.
'Sloppy. Careless. Here! Strike here!' the soul-amalgam within Noriki no meiyo chides, a thin band of bright light shimmering into view behind the tentacled "face" of the creature standing between her and Corridan.
Chasing away his frustration at the creatures' resilience, Corridan takes but a moment to concentrate and center himself before unleashing another pair of strikes, the first one against the point where the beast's body seems to meet its head, hoping that it is vulnerable enough to perhaps incapacitate it for a few moments.
With Penance dropping, Iliante supports his sensei Shinjuko while trying to avoid the beasty.
"Ras! Do help Master Penance please, we cannot keep healing him!" exclaims Telemakos when he sees the half-orc fall down once again.
Arasmes turns to smile at the gnome “Master, I’m getting really good at flying!”
“Yes, yes, I noticed!” replies Telemakos exasperated “Now don’t look at me, fight!”
“Will do, Master!” flying above the unconscious Penance, obscuring both him and the grick, Arasmes rains down two powerful hits on the enemy, killing it.
Telemakos watches his bloodied clothes and the torn skin on his arm. Oh, I’m going to regret this, I just know it!
“Master Penance hang on! I’m coming!” screams Telemakos clumsily riding his mount “Now you stay here, stupid lizard!” he screams at the reptile as he dismounts. He gets side by side with Iliante, bayonet facing the grick. One more target for you, monster! Just don’t bite Penance anymore!
Just hold, out a little longer. Devram thinks as he sees the others come to Penance's aid. The blood from both worms fly and he hoped the half-orc can be saved. Devram bobs around the worm in front of him, but he reserves his sword for parrying, rather than striking out.
Penance's breathing is ragged under his battered armor, but it holds steady.
================================
The un-stunned grick tries to escape from Devram and his lizard mount. It slithers off into the undergrowth, rapidly disappearing from view.
______________________________________
Devram watches the worm thing turn tail and run, wishing he had been able to finish it off, but also knowing it might have been a feeble strike against it's tough hide. He wheels the lizard around and sees they rest of the group has largely taken care of the other threats. He comes closer and dismounts.
“Wow! Master did you see that! I killed it in one blow!” yells Arasmes.
The gnome replies exasperated “There’s still one alive! Come on now, you goof, be quick about it!”
Once again the large curved blade swings down, slicing up the aberration.
_____________________
Arasmes kills the last of the gricks.
After Penance is stable and on the mend, Iliante slides onto the muddy jungle floor and attempts to recover from the shock of being absolutely useless.
“Woah! Master that was incredible! Did you see that?” Arasmes keeps flying above the group “I was like SWEESH! And then SWOOSH! Ah! Take this, you stupid worm!” he keeps swinging the blade, hacking at the nearby trees, still pumped with excitement for the fight.
Telemakos checks Penance's lizard That’s dead, for sure. One mount down. “Yes, a very impressive performance, ‘Ras. Would you mind getting down now? And please stop yelling. There are other predators, you know.”
“Let them come! I’ll kill them like the worms! SWASH!” he decapitates a very predatory-looking acacia tree.
The gnome walks up to Penance “You would think with all that armor and big muscles, he would be tougher to injure, wouldn’t you?” he asks, to nobody in particular. “Here, it worked last time, will work this one too.” he says chanting from a scroll I seriously hope his bond with Abadar won’t be put at risk by the repeated use of this awful healing trick. Ugh! Disgusting.
_____________________
Devram sheathes his sword and walks over to see Penance lying on the ground in blood. "Damn, big guy. You like cutting it close." He watches as the half-orc's breathing becomes more regular and eventually his eyes open.
"What were those things? They seemed to take a beating and not even blink. Or react or whatever. I don't think they had eyes."
"Cold and magic worked well enough. Perhaps the creatures of this island receive inherent boons from the. . . "unique" nature of its origins." Shinjuko savors the fleeting wisps of frigid air that surrounds her blade, holding it near to her forehead and neck to alleviate some of the heat before the dweomers fade entirely. As the last of the frost sloughs off of her tachi, she replaces it in its sheath.
"Should we continue onward, then? I do not wish to lose any of our number to recklessness."
Penance wakes up groggily, feeling a fading fire in his limbs and an unpleasant taste in his mouth. He sees Telemakos standing over him, peering down in concern.
"...we gotta... stop meetin'... like this," Penance wisecracks weakly to the gnome. The half-orc sits up with a grimace and a wince, dully aware of the new dents and dings in his battered armor.
He stares around at the gricks with a wince of a different sort. He hadn't even landed one blow-- some damned warrior he's turning out to be, he thinks.
Aching, Penance hauls himself to his feet. "Yeah," he grunts to Shin's words. "We'll, uh, get going just as soon as... ah, shit."
That's right, his mount is mincemeat and then some. Penance groans. He unhooks his waterskin from his belt and upends it on himself to wash off the blood-- his own, and that of the dead gricks-- lest that draw even more insects. His ribs are throbbing where one of the creatures had added another dent to his armor. His head really hurts. And now he's apparently going to walk through this gods-be-damned jungle. Excellent.
"Gimme a second," Penance mutters. "Who's hurt?"
Devram nods at Penance. "Nothing like what happened to you, but I could use some healing." He gingerly touches the wounds on his arm where the worm bit him.
"I am fine," Corridan says, dusting himself off. "They ignored me, not that it is a surprise. I could not hurt them, so why would they bother?" He turns his eyes towards Penance and then smiles thinly. "Unless the real reason is that they prefer their food in a can."
Penance offers Corridan and his jest a bared-teeth grimace that shows off those tusks he inherited from his mother's side of the family-- he's smiling, but it might be hard to tell.
"The metal makes me taste better. Alright-- heh, Telemakos, you got a chunk missing too!" The half-orc claps the gnome on the back hard enough to stagger him a step or two. "Welcome to the feast-- we're what's up for dinner. Alright, hang on--"
Penance checks to be sure the gricks are truly dead, and then he mutters a prayer to Abadar. Golden sunlight bathes the little jungle clearing that had hosted such violence, and Penance puts big hands on gnome and human alike.
Penance is still full of aches and pains-- his ribs, he thinks, might still be hairline cracked given how much they hurt, but... his armor holds them in place, anyway.
"Right, so... not to be a greedy goddamned bastard, but if I'm on foot, I'll slow us all down pushing through this mess. Anyone want to trade me their mount?" Another toothy grin, as he gestures at what's left of his. "Mine used to be real friendly."
“What? Did I… Oh Gods in Heavens and Hells everywhere!” adrenaline dissipating in the gnome’s body, the shock of being wounded comes back quickly “Oh Gods… blood! Blood everywhere. I feel weak. It’s going to get infected, I just know it I mean… Oh. Oh. Thanks, Master Penance! That feels… better.”
“Hey master, look at that, that!”Arasmes points at the small wound still open on the gnome’s arm “That could be your first scar!”
“Ah… I’m sure it will heal perfectly. Won’t it, Master Penance?” he looks hopeful at the half-orc.
When the topic of the mount comes up, Telemakos doesn’t waste another opportunity to talk “I may be carried by Arasmes, as he did so many times already.” Arasmes flexes his deltoids “Although that would considerably slow both our reaction times in the unfortunate yet possible case of another ambush.”
Devram flexes his hand and arm after the healing. "Much better."
"I don't mind walking, but in this damned heat, I might not be in great shape for a fight afterward."
"Yeah, sure," Penance says with a total lack of concern to Telemakos's worried question about whether his injury will heal without a scar. Scars are manly, little gnome. Chicks dig scars.
When both Telemakos and Devram offer their respective mounts, Penance offers a gruff, "Thanks." He gives Coates a long look, but he remembers the way the guy had hacked up his lungs every night on the ship. Poor bastard would probably keep over like a tree if he marched in this mess, he thinks.
"Maybe you'd better have your genie-in-a-bottle carry you, then," he says to the gnome.
Still moving stiff and gingerly (ow, his ribs), Penance takes the reins of Telemakos's riding lizard and painfully heaves himself back into the saddle.
"Wish we knew more about what the hell these things were," he grunts. "Ah well. We can describe them later to the hobs. If we make i back alive."
<< | | | >>
Even with the break they'd taken for lunch, the Agents have been traveling for a good six hours already. The oppressive heat and terrain combined with the battle has them exhausted, but they decide to press on further. For the next two hours the group continues to hack its way through the jungle. Just as they are growing too tired to continue on without risking heat exhaustion and personal damage, they come across a large cave-like crevasse, opening into the side of the one of the steep valleys that separate the hills. The natural fissure is overgrown with vines and plants and dark inside, but it is easily large enough to accommodate a man and appears to continue (presumably into some kind of cavern).
“Aah, there we go! A nice, protected place to spend the night. It comes at the right time too – I’m having trouble seeing the sun through the trees, but my stomach tells me it is about dinner time!” exclaims Telemakos rubbing his belly when they stumble upon the cavern. “A bit narrow for some of us, granted,” he elbows Penance, thankfully on the hip rather than the too high and badly bruised ribs “but we can make it work!”
“Master, aren’t you scared of the monsters that live in the cavern?”
“What are you blabbering about? This cave is perfectly… oh. Oh, I see. There could be monsters living in here…” suddenly much less confident, the gnome’s eyes turn to the others.
"Past dinner time," Penance agrees. He can deal with long hours and with being tired, but dammit, he's hungry. He offers an absent glare down at Telemakos for the elbowing, but more of his attention is on the back of the cave where it disappears into blackness behind the thin veil of plants.
"Shh...."
Penance cocks his head, listening down the twisting corridor for any noises. He also looks in the dirt at the cave's entrance, to see if any tracks have disturbed the earth here and mark possible passage by some creature using the cave system as a den.
"Least it'll be cool in the cave... 'course, that makes it awful tempting to lots of critters besides just us..."
There are no tracks in front of the entrance and Penance doesn't hear anything.
Iliante twirls his revolver by the trigger guard, "would someone please check out the tunnel before we camp here? I'm the first one into water not earth." His tone is more aggravating than intended due to the long hot day and horrible ambush.
"Yeah, yeah, calm your.... gills," Penance mutters, still staring into the gloom ahead. He's tired and achey and he'd really like to sit down and peel out of his armor and pass out for a few hours, but... the half-orc sighs.
He unhooks his waterskin and drinks deeply, getting his breath back after the oppressive heat of travel in the sticky jungle, then wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and re-hooks the skin to his belt.
"Don't see or hear any signs this is used, but... I'll go in a short way. Anyone with me?"
With his sword drawn from its scabbard on his back, Penance slides the viney growths aside to move towards the back of the tunnel, staring into the blackness and sniffing at the air as he goes.
Devram looks at the half-orc. "How about you sit this one out. I think you've had your fill of scary monsters for the day. I can go. Telemakos or Shinjuko can some with me to back me up." The Aldori stands and draws his weapon.
"Uh, someone got a light?"
Penance offers Devram a toothy grin. "I'm the only one can get you back on your feet if you go down, unless Telemakos has another trick up his sleeve," he points out. "You don't want to leave me too far behind. But if you want to stick your head up first and see what bites at it, I'll let you-- I'm tired of being dinner."
He digs in his pack as he speaks, coming up with a torch, which he lights. He considers for a moment, then puts the executioner's sword away and draws his morningstar instead. There. Light for human eyes, and a weapon. Tada.
Shinjuko steps forward and places a hand on the hilt of her tachi. "I will scout out the intended refuge. One moment; I will return if something is amiss."
Much like when the dragon had descended upon The Naga's Breath Shinjuko dances in a brief flourish before fading entirely from sight. What vines cover the entrance into the crevice part briefly as the young yuki slips inside. She travels forward for a short distance, trusting to her dweomer to keep her hidden from sight but maintaining a light grip on the hilt of her tachi in case something unexpected appears. She keeps mental note of how long her spell will keep her hidden from sight, turning back when the magic has nearly run its course.
The crevasse goes about twenty feet in, twisting back and forth on itself until it opens into a larger cave. The floor of the chamber is bedrock covered in a thin coating of dust and sand. The walls are rough naturally formed stone. The cave is roughly circular, with a diameter of approximately forty feet, and no other visible exits. In the far side of the cave, where the floor is lowest, there is a large, colorless pool of some kind of liquid. It might be water, but it's hard to tell from across the room in the blacks and whites of darkvision.
When Shinjuko returns and informs them of what she saw, Penance frowns.
"Pool of some sort, huh? This seems like a perfect little den. You got your water, if it's water, a safe place to hole up-- one entrance, half-hidden... I'm really surprised I'm not seeing tracks here, honestly."
He grunts, and shrugs. Not like water's exactly scarce in this humid hell-hole of a jungle, so maybe that makes it less prime real estate than it might be on the mainland.
"So, do we want to go back into that cavern? Sounds big enough we could all stretch out fine-- and if that is a source of good, pure water, this place might be worth remembering for the future. An emergency rendezvous point if shit goes south with the hobs, or something."
Iliante enters the cave and heads toward the "water" having to make good on his "first into the water" statement. He approaches cautiously taking his time to survey. He automatically switches his gear for wetwork.
If it's just water, he'll get in and look around.
“Do we suspect an ambush coming from the water? Could it be the lair of an amphibious creature?” he asks Penance and Iliante when he sees their carefulness around the liquid “Master Iliante, while I do appreciate your courage, I could send in a being of elemental water to aid you, should you desire so…”
Iliante will not say no to support. He'll just shrug.
It's definitely not water. Looks more like some kind of oil. It has no smell, and is transparent.
When Iliante determines that it's not water, he quickly switches his gear to drywork and says. "I know water. That's not water. Looks more like some kind of oil. Can you call an oil elemental?" He asks the gnome.
“Alas, while it is certain that an Elemental Plane of Oil exists somewhere in the Great Beyond, it is yet to be discovered, master Iliante.” Telemakos shrugs at the undine’s question “Although, should this pool lead to an underground deposit, and should this oil be combustible, this may just the first of our lucrative discovers! Let’s make some tests, shall we?” the gnome looks excited “’Ras! Grab a cup, fill it and try to set it ablaze.”
The genie does so “Master, can I taste it? Pleeease?” he asks with the cup in one hand.
“That would be a later test. As a rule of thumb, you don’t want to ingest anything flammable. Light it, come on!” he gestures.
The oil does not burn when subjected to the heat of an open flame.